Glenlossie whisky – Speyside

Glenlossie distillery information

John Duff, who used to manage the Glendronach distillery as well as founded the Longmorn and Benriach distilleries, and ran a hotel (The Fire Arms), teamed up with some business partners, and founded the Glenlossie distillery in 1876 under the name of John Duff & Co. Among these business partners was Alexander Allen, who later on would own a part of Talisker, and John Hopkins, who would go on to own Tobermory. Hopkins was put in charge of the sales of the new brand. The distillery is located some 2 miles south of Elgin in the Speyside whisky region.

In 1896, the distillery was incorporated as the Glenlossie-Glenlivet Distillery Co. Ltd. By that time, Hopkins had left, and Mackay took over the daily management. Around the same time, a private stretch of railroad was constructed in order to reduce the costs of transportation. Between this time and 1917, new warehouses were built, and other extensions and improvements were made almost every year. Some of those also included a horse-drawn fire engine, which has been preserved and is still on display.

The company joined Distillers Company Ltd (DCL) in 1919, with DCL gaining a controlling interest. In 1930, Glenlossie was transferred to Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD) by DCL. In the 1950s and 1960s, additional warehouses were added, and electricity was installed in the distillery. In 1962, the Glenlossie distillery was expanded, with the amount of stills increasing from four to six. The stills were also converted to use steam heating. The distillery is licensed to John Haig & Co, who use the whisky produced for their Haig blend.

Between 1968 and 1971, a dark grains plant is built, where left-over barley (draff) and pot ale from distillation are processed into cattle feed. In 1971, the Mannochmore distillery was established on the same grounds as Glenlossie, with the staff initially working six months of every year in each plant. After the demand for whisky increased, since 2007 both distilleries now run full-time. In 1999, the distillery was transferred to United Distillers & Vintners Ltd (UDV), who later became Diageo. A large number of casks from the different Diageo-owned distilleries are stored in the Glenlossie warehouses, which hold some 200,000 casks.

In 2011, Diageo announced it would expand the dark grains plant using a 6 million pound investment.

Glenlossie whisky

The spirit stills at Glenlossie are equipped with purifiers, which recycle part of the condensed spirit back into the still, in order to produce a lighter whisky.

Most of the whisky distilled at Glenlossie is still used for blending, primarily for Haig. Only one official bottling has been released: